Shift schedule generator

How to use the shift schedule generator

1. Choose a pattern, or Custom cycle to type your own.
2. Pick your crew and the date your crew starts the cycle (its first shift in the pattern). Check the strip of your first two weeks against your real schedule.
3. Set the shift times if yours differ from 7 to 7.
4. Download the year as a calendar file (.ics) for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, or as a PDF, or print it.

Every pattern is checked: the generator shows whether each day has the crews the pattern promises (for example one day crew and one night crew) over a whole cycle.

Patterns compared

Average hours assume the default shift lengths (12 hours, or 24 for firefighter patterns). Change the shift times and the generator recalculates them for your schedule.

Making your own cycle

Type one letter per day: D for a day shift, N for a night shift, E for an evening (swing) shift, X for a 24-hour shift and - (or O) for a day off. Then set how many crews there are and how many days after one another they start.

• DDNN---- with 4 crews, 2 days apart: 2 days, 2 nights, 4 off, covering days and nights every day.
• DDDDDDD------- with 2 crews, 7 days apart: a 7 on, 7 off day shift.
• DDEENN---- with 5 crews, 2 days apart: 2 days, 2 evenings, 2 nights, 4 off on 8-hour shifts.

If the crews don’t cover every shift evenly, the coverage line says how many crews work each shift instead; change the number of crews or the spacing until it says every day is covered.

12-hour or 8-hour shifts?

With 12-hour shifts, four crews cover a 24/7 operation and each works about 42 hours a week on average (DuPont, 2-2-3, 4 on 4 off). With 8-hour shifts, three shifts a day are needed, and five crews give about 33.6 hours a week each; four crews give 42 hours but usually mean shorter breaks between rotations. Longer shifts mean fewer days at work and fewer handovers, but more tiredness late in a shift.

Add your shifts to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook

Press Add to calendar (.ics). It saves one file with every shift of the year for your crew, made on this device. Then:

• Google Calendar: on a computer, open Google Calendar, go to Settings, then Import & export, choose the file and the calendar to add it to. (The phone app can’t import files, but shows the shifts once they are imported.)
• iPhone or iPad: open the file from the Files app or an email and tap Add All. On a Mac, open it in Calendar or use File, Import.
• Outlook: in Outlook on the web choose Add calendar, Upload from file; in Outlook for Windows, File, Open & Export, Import/Export.

Tip: make a new, empty calendar called “Shifts” and import into that. If the rotation changes, delete that calendar and import a new file. Shift times are saved without a time zone, so a 7 AM shift shows at 7 AM on your phone wherever it is set, including across daylight-saving changes.